Pictures at an Exhibition
by Enthusiastic Fish
Summary: My Halloween story for the year. This is a season 2 team fic. On their way home, the team runs into trouble and ends up at a mysterious castle with a very strange art collection. 10 chapters. Now complete.
1. Promenade

**A/N:** This is my nearly annual Halloween story. This year, it's based on a piano suite called _Pictures at an Exhibition_ by Modest Mussorgsky. I love it and each chapter is named after one of the pieces in that suite. I highly recommend that you get on YouTube or whatever else and listen to it because each chapter was inspired by the chapter in the title (I recommend Evgeny Kissin's piano version rather than any of the orchestral versions). Each chapter is also inspired by the paintings that Mussorgsky was inspired by when he wrote the suite.

The team in this story is the season 2 team, so we're going back in time here.

**Disclaimer:** As usual, I don't own NCIS and I'm not trying to make money off it.

* * *

**Pictures at an Exhibition  
**by Enthusiastic Fish

**Chapter 1: Promenade**

"How much further until we get out of this, Probie?" Tony demanded.

"I don't know, Tony. I've never been on this road," Tim said.

"Well, check your phone!"

Tim sighed. "I've already told you more than once that we're in the quiet zone. No signals here. And it will stay the same until we get out of it. I'll let you know."

"Just drive, DiNozzo," Gibbs said.

"Yeah. You know what direction to go," Kate said. "Just focus on that. I want to get home tonight."

"Yeah? Hot date, Kate?" Tony asked, leering a little bit in the rearview mirror.

"Don't make me hurt you, Tony," Kate said. "I don't want us to get in an accident."

Gibbs suppressed a sigh. This bickering had been going on for far too long, but he could admit that some of it was his fault. He shouldn't have agreed to participate in the training exercise over the weekend that was their time off, and coming on the heels of a difficult case. They had all been looking forward to time away from work...and away from each other to some degree. However, Morrow had _strongly recommended _his participation over another MCRT, but he had ignored those plenty of times before. No one had been happy about it, although Tim, at least, had said very little in opposition since he was too new to feel like he could complain. But when Tony had started pushing him to produce results he couldn't produce, Tim had started getting more and more snippy.

There were a few precious minutes of silence. It couldn't last.

"Are we out yet, Probie?" Tony asked.

"I said that I'll tell you when we are! Stop asking!" Tim said.

Tony turned toward Tim.

"Hey, I'm just..."

Then, Gibbs grabbed for the wheel.

"Look out!"

As they came around a corner, suddenly, there was a tree in the way. Tony turned back and slammed on the brakes. The car started to skid and then, there was an explosion and the car spun around in a circle until it came to an abrupt stop, throwing them all against the passenger side, meaning that both Tim and Gibbs were squished against the door by Kate and Tony. The windows shattered and there was nothing but silence in the car for a few seconds.

"Everyone okay?" Gibbs asked.

"I'm fine," Tony said, rubbing his shoulder.

"Fine, Gibbs," Kate said from the back. "McGee?"

Gibbs turned around in his seat and saw Tim just starting to open his eyes.

"You okay, McGee?" Gibbs asked.

Tim nodded vaguely but didn't reply.

"McGee!" Kate said, shaking him a little bit.

"I'm... I'm okay."

"Kate?" Gibbs asked.

"I think he's all right, Gibbs," Kate said.

"I'm all right. Just...a little..."

Gibbs twisted around in his seat again and he could see that Tim had probably hit his head, not enough to really knock him out, but enough to make him dazed. Something to watch.

"Okay. Let's get out and see what the damage is."

Carefully, they all got out of the car, although Tim chose to sit down on the ground. Kate grabbed the first aid kit and was bandaging up the cut on his head.

Gibbs and Tony checked out the car.

"We've got a blowout," Tony said. "Can't drive anywhere on that, but we could probably keep going with the spare."

Gibbs nodded and walked to the back of the car while Tony popped the trunk. He pulled out the spare and then swore inwardly.

"Spare's flat."

"What?" Tony asked. "Who left it like that?"

"Don't know."

"Well, what now, Gibbs?" Kate asked. "We don't have cell service. We can't drive the car and I don't see much around here."

"Wait, Ducky should be coming through soon," Tony said. "He and Palmer were going to be finished just a couple of hours after us."

"But he said they might get a hotel room overnight and come back tomorrow," Kate said.

"Oh, yeah."

"Look! Lights!" Tim said, pointing through the trees.

Gibbs followed where Tim was pointing and he saw lights as well. Thank goodness. The sky overhead was looking dark and ominous. He wouldn't be surprised if it started raining soon.

"Good. Maybe they have a landline," Tony said. "Or a spare tire."

"And a bathroom," Kate said.

"Just use a tree," Tony said. "There are plenty of choices."

Kate just rolled her eyes and didn't respond. Instead, she stood up and helped Tim to his feet. He wasn't fully steady, but he was able to walk and, all things considered, Gibbs didn't want to leave him alone here. They might as well all go together.

They started to stumble through the trees toward the lights.

Tim kept tripping and, without saying anything, Tony caught up to him and Kate and began to help Tim stay upright. Kate looked at him and smiled a little. Gibbs noticed that the bickering was forgotten for the moment. He hoped that continued.

"Almost heaven. West Virginia," Tony said skeptically. "Yeah, right. John Denver had to be high."

Kate laughed. "Oh, come on. Just because we had an accident doesn't make West Virginia ugly. This is beautiful."

"Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River," Tim sang softly.

"Actually, that song is perfect," Kate said. "'Take me home, country roads.' That's what we want. Just be nice, Tony, and maybe West Virginia will listen to us."

"Ha," Tony said. "You know, we should have walked on the road until we found the driveway. If there's a house out here, they've got to get to it somehow."

"Too late for that now," Kate said. "The light is brighter. We must be almost there."

They pushed through the trees. Kate was in front, blazing a trail while Tony helped Tim along. Gibbs took up the rear.

Then, Kate came to an abrupt stop. Tim wasn't paying attention and he ran into her, almost knocking her over.

"Whoa. What's with–?" Tony stuttered to a stop as he realized why Kate had stopped moving.

"I'm still awake, right?" Tim said as he stared. "You guys are seeing this, too?"

Gibbs came up behind them and understood why they were all so shocked. They had found the source of the light, all right.

Spread out before them was a castle. Not a big house, not some sprawling country estate. This was a legitimate castle. It was like they'd suddenly stepped into medieval Europe. The castle was huge with a tall wall around it and one wrought-iron gate that was standing open. There were lights on inside the castle.

"Are you seeing this?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, I'm seeing it," Kate said. "I can't believe it, but I'm seeing it."

"Okay, I vote that we go back to the car," Tony said. "I think this is a little too weird for me."

As if Mother Nature had just been waiting for that, there was a clap of thunder directly over their heads and the wind began to blow. The trees swayed in the gale and smaller branches began to fall all around them.

"Run!" Gibbs said, pushing them all forward.

Standing around in a forest in a storm was not a good idea.

"But..." Tony protested.

"Go!" Gibbs said and pushed Tony again.

They all began to run toward the castle, ducking down as the branches continued to fall. Just behind them a full-sized tree toppled to the ground, missing Gibbs by inches.

Even Tim tried to run faster, although he was still not quite steady. Both Kate and Tony grabbed him by the arms and urged him along.

A huge gust of wind propelled them forward as if they were being forced to go through the gates. They reached the road that led to the castle and the ran through the gates right as the rain started in earnest, pelting them with large, heavy drops. They got to a large porch, offering protection from the rain that was now pouring down, and then ducked again as a loud clang reached their ears.

They all turned around.

Through the rain, they could see the gates.

They were now closed.


	2. Gnome

**Chapter 2: Gnome**

"Tony, check to see if the gates will open," Gibbs said.

Tony groaned, looking out at the pouring rain, but he nodded and sprinted over to the entrance. Kate watched as Tony tugged on the metal gates, checked the latch, and then ran back under cover, now soaked.

"They wouldn't budge, Boss," Tony said. "I can't figure out why not...and no, it's not because I wasn't really trying."

"Well, maybe we should just knock on the door," Kate said. "Remember that there were lights inside. Someone must be in there."

"Maybe not," Tim said, softly. "It's weird, isn't it? This shouldn't be here. Maybe..."

"Maybe what? It's weird, but that doesn't mean we imagined lights."

Kate walked over to the large, wooden door and knocked firmly.

Then, they waited, almost not breathing. There was an eerie silence, in spite of the rain. Kate didn't say anything, but she almost was afraid of what she might see if the door _did_ open.

Then, Gibbs walked over and tried the knob.

It turned. He opened the door.

"Gibbs..." Kate said, weakly. This was not the time to barge in.

He looked at her with eyebrow raised and then opened the door all the way.

"Hello?" Kate called, trying to be polite, although she was starting to feel like coming here had been a mistake.

There was no response.

"No one is home. I vote we climb over the gates and get back to the car," Tony said.

"The twenty-foot wrought-iron gates with no hand-holds in a thunderstorm?" Kate asked.

"Better than staying here. I don't like this. I don't think staying here is a good idea."

"No choice, DiNozzo," Gibbs said.

He stepped around Kate and stepped inside.

"Gibbs? I really don't think that..." Kate stopped and sighed. "Fine."

She stepped in after him, looking back for a moment and Tim and Tony who were both still standing uncertainly in the doorway. She shrugged.

They were in a small receiving area, but it look like it opened up into a much larger space, a large staircase leading up to a second floor. A hallway leading into darkness. Closed doors. It was _not_ a welcoming space. In fact, it was more than a little spooky.

"Let's just see if we can find a phone, then," Kate said.

"There won't be a phone in here," Tim said, looking around nervously.

"Why do you say that, Probie?" Tony asked.

"I'm with Tony. I say we try to get out of here. I'll even let _him_ stand on my shoulders this time."

Gibbs turned around a looked at them with a raised eyebrow. Sometimes, Kate got really annoyed at the way Gibbs just expected them to know what he was thinking.

"What was that?" Tim said suddenly, looking around him.

"What was what?" Tony asked.

"I heard someone...or something running," Tim said.

Tony rolled his eyes. Even Kate looked at the bump on Tim's head. He caught her look and he sighed.

"Look, I know what you're all thinking. I didn't hit my head that hard. I heard something. Something running behind me." He looked around again.

Then, a gust of wind blew in behind them and one of the doors creaked open.

They all looked toward the door and then Tim spun around again.

"There it was. I heard it again! It was right behind me!" he said, sounding a little wigged out.

Another gust of wind and the door that had creaked open slammed against the wall, revealing what looked like a parlor. It was empty except for a single framed picture above the fireplace. It was a simple painting of a nutcracker. It seemed strange for it to be there when there was nothing else in the room...and why a nutcracker?

They could all see into the room, but they were all strangely reluctant to step over the threshold. Kate didn't know what the others were thinking, but _she_ was thinking that there was something going on here that none of them actually understood. She kept that thought to herself because Gibbs had often scoffed at her leaps of intuition in the past. She also knew that sometimes her leaps were wrong.

Gibbs started to step into the room, but Kate grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"I don't know if we should go exploring, Gibbs," she said. "In fact, I might be with Tony. Maybe we shouldn't..."

"There it was again!" Tim said, turning around in a circle once and then a second time. He kept looking for something.

Gibbs looked at Kate and then walked over to Tim and grabbed him.

"What are you hearing, Tim?" he asked.

Uh-oh. Gibbs didn't call Tim by his first name except when things were really bad.

"Something running, but it's always behind me."

"You keep saying some_thing_, Probie," Tony said. "What are you thinking it is?"

"What does it sound like?" Gibbs asked.

"Wood," Tim said, looking a little embarrassed. "Wood on the stone floor."

"Behind you?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes. I haven't seen it, and I've been watching for it," Tim said.

"Okay, then, keep your back to the wall."

"If I'm going nuts, that's not going to help, Boss," Tim said.

Gibbs smiled. "But it will if it's really there."

"You think it is?"

"Don't know."

Tim didn't move for a moment, and then Gibbs physically forced him to move so that his back was to the wall. Then, Kate saw him make eye contact with Tony who simply nodded and moved over so that he was slightly behind Tim, almost like he was an extra barrier. Kate smiled at the concern. Tony didn't often admit to it, but he tried to help when things did get bad.

"Okay, now what?" Tony asked.

"We look for a phone. There are lights in here," Gibbs said.

"Doesn't mean they have a phone," Tony said. "I still think we shouldn't hang out in here."

Gibbs just shrugged and walked back to the open door and stepped inside.

...and disappeared.

Kate swore in surprise...and then mentally prayed that her grandmother (who had been a major stickler about language) wasn't listening in.

"Gibbs?"

She took a step toward the doorway, but Tony grabbed her arm and stopped her. She protested for a moment and then nodded. Gibbs hadn't just moved quickly. He had stepped into the room and vanished.

"Where did he go?" Tim whispered.

There was no responding to that question.

Then, there was a strange sound. Kate heard it. She could tell that Tony did, too. They all heard it.

It was as if something wooden was walking across the stone floor behind them. A few steps and then a pause. A few more steps and a pause. But it was behind them.

Tony grabbed both of them by the arm and kept them from turning.

"Wait," he said softly.

It was getting closer. Kate could feel Tim getting tense.

What could it be?

Would it still be there when they turned around?

Should they let it get any closer?

A few more steps.

It was very close.

"Now!" Tony said.

The three of them turned around at once.

And they weren't sure whether to laugh or to be terrified.

On the floor was a nutcracker.

Made out of wood.

It wasn't moving.

But it hadn't been there before.

But could it really have been moving?

Kate stared at the nutcracker for a long, almost interminable moment. Why was it there? And why was a silly little thing somehow so potentially sinister?

Well, part of the answer to that question was probably because it wasn't the typical soldier nutcracker with a big toothy grin. The grin was there, but this nutcracker was in the shape of some sort of deformed creature.

"What now?" Tim asked.

"I...don't know," Tony said.

They were all afraid to look away from it now that they'd seen it. Kate could tell that there was genuine fear involved...because this was unknown. Gibbs had vanished and now, it appeared that a nutcracker could walk around on its own.

Maybe.

Another gust of wind from the still-open door startled them and, involuntarily, they all turned toward the sound.

Then, Tim shouted.

"It's gone!"

Kate and Tony turned back.

Sure enough. The little nutcracker was no longer on the floor.

"That door wasn't open before," Tim said, pointing at the door right ahead of them.

"I'm not sure we should check it out," Tony said.

"Maybe Gibbs is in there?" Kate suggested.

"Then, why isn't he saying anything?"

"I don't know."

Kate squared her shoulders and strode across the hall to the door. She pushed it open and then caught her breath.

The nutcracker was there.

The room was empty.

Just the nutcracker.

Not moving.

Sitting there on the floor.

It really seemed to be staring at her.

Kate didn't like that one bit.

"The... nutcracker is here."

Tim walked over and joined her at the doorway. And it was right there.

Staring at them.

Tony walked over, but as he did, he tripped over the uneven floor and fell into Tim.

Tim stumbled forward over the threshold.

...and vanished.

"No!"

The nutcracker was gone.

Kate found herself holding onto Tony's arm in a most unprofessional fashion.

But she couldn't make herself let go of him.

"What is going on here?" she asked.

"You're asking the wrong person, Kate," Tony said. "I have no idea...but we can't leave now. Not with both Gibbs and McGee disappearing like that. We need to find them."

"How?" Kate asked. "We don't even know how this is possible."

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that it _is_ possible. Why? Who knows? But it is. So that's what we have to deal with."

Slowly, they backed away from the open door, back to the middle of the hallway.

Their eyes were drawn up the stairs. There was light up there, but why? What would be up there? Was it worse than down here? Were Tim and Gibbs up there? Were they gone permanently?

There were so many questions, but none of them had answers.

At least, not if they stayed down in the hall by the door that was banging in the wind and rain.

Tony looked at her.

"Upstairs or somewhere else?"

Kate wanted nothing more than to run out of this house and risk the storm, but at the same time, she felt like it was kind of her fault that they were in this situation. There was no way that she could abandon Tim and Gibbs.

"Kate?" Tony asked.

Kate looked down the dark hallway that led to who knew where. She looked at the stairs that led to who knew where...but it was light.

Cowardly? Perhaps.

"Let's go up," she said softly.

"Okay. Let's go up," Tony said.

Slowly, they started toward the stairs, wondering if a single step would lead to their disappearance as well.


	3. The Old Castle

**Chapter 3: The Old Castle**

There was a pause before Kate and Tony took their first step onto the stairs. Then, without quite admitting it, they both took a breath and stepped together.

Nothing happened.

Kate exhaled loudly. Tony forced himself to laugh.

"Scared?"

"Yes, Tony," Kate said. "I'm terrified. I don't know what's going on or how we're going to get out of this or find McGee and Gibbs or if we even have a chance."

Tony didn't like that easy admission. That meant Kate really was scared. If she was just nervous, she'd pretend she wasn't because she wouldn't want to seem wimpy. In this case, she was scared enough to be willing to admit it.

"Well, we won't get anywhere by standing here on the bottom step," he said. "Gibbs and McGee have to be here somewhere."

"No, they don't, Tony," Kate said. "The normal rules got thrown out the window when Gibbs disappeared. When Tim disappeared. When that creepy nutcracker showed up. There are no rules here!"

"Yes, there are," Tony said. "Just because we don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist. Let's go. Apparently, stairs don't count in the disappearing act."

Tony took another step and then looked back at Kate and held out his hand, trying to lighten the mood. ...or at least irritate Kate enough that she'd forget to be scared.

The look in her eye as she stared at him said that she knew exactly what he was doing but that she'd go along with it.

Kate squared her shoulders and strode past Tony, quickly mounting the stairs, forcing him to catch up. The momentum carried them both up to the top of the stairs...where the stopped once more. There was a long stone hallway, flanked by flickering torches.

"Torches? Come on!" Tony said, incredulously. "Where are we? The Middle Ages?"

"The castle is," Kate said quietly. "It's really old. Everything about it is old."

"But _we_ are not," Tony said. "And I don't like that there are these torches here. It doesn't make sense."

There really wasn't anything to say to that, so they started down the hall. There were doors on both sides, all closed tightly.

Except one.

Down at the far end of the hallway, there was an open door with light spilling out of it. It was _not_ flickering torchlight either.

"Hello?" Kate called. "Anyone home?"

They both waited. Tony wasn't sure whether or not he wanted an answer.

Silence.

"Well? You want to go down there and check it out?"

"No, but unless we start opening random doors, I don't see that we have many options," Kate said.

"Okay."

They started walking down the hall, side by side. Occasionally, they looked back over their shoulders...looking for something or someone following them. They could hear the front door banging against the wall from the wind, but that was the only other sound. They came level with the open door and, silently, they counted down, taking positions on either side of it.

Then, they looked inside...without stepping over the threshold.

The room was empty.

Except for a huge painting.

It was of an old castle in the countryside. There was a troubadour in the foreground, playing some kind of stringed instrument. The castle was looming and ominous. The painting was so large that it stretched from wall to wall.

"Tony," Kate whispered suddenly.

"What?"

She pointed mutely at the painting.

"What?" Tony asked, getting both annoyed and a little nervous.

"The windows."

Tony looked more closely.

There were four people in the windows of the old castle.

Two together. Male and female.

Two separate.

Both male.

"Uh..."

"We're in the painting, Tony. Why are we in the painting?"

"Doesn't have to be us," Tony said, but it was a weak protest at best.

"Tony, we're in this painting," Kate said, again. "There's you and I. There's Gibbs. That other one is McGee. This is us! Why?"

"I don't know."

"And is there someone outside the castle?"

"Huh?"

"The guy playing."

"No one would be outside in this weather."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don't think we can depend on anything that we would expect," Kate said. "And where is the light in this room coming from?"

Tony looked around and realized that Kate was right. There was no obvious light source. There was no lamp, no fireplace. The room was blank as if its only purpose was to hold this painting.

"I don't know."

He looked at the painting again and swallowed.

"Uh...Kate... Two of the people have moved," he said, pointing.

The two figures Kate had identified as Tim and Gibbs were now in different places while the other two figures were in the same place.

...and the troubadour had vanished completely.

"What now?" Kate asked. Then, her eyes widened. "Maybe we can figure out where they are, Tony."

"What?"

"If this is really showing us where we are, we should be able to figure out where Gibbs and McGee are!"

"So where are they?" Tony asked. "I don't see any other stairs going up and it looks like they're above us."

"I don't know."

Then, for the first time, they heard a sound that wasn't themselves or the banging front door.

It was music. A lilting, mysterious melody.

"Where is that coming from?" Tony asked.

Kate didn't say anything.

"You hear it, too, right, Kate?" Tony asked.

Kate still said nothing.

Tony turned and Kate wasn't looking at him. She was staring at the painting.

"Kate?"

Nothing.

"Kate!"

Then, slowly but too fast for him to realize what was happening, she pulled away from him and stepped over the threshold.

...and disappeared.

"Kate!"

Tony looked at the painting of the old castle.

Where the male and the female figures had been together...

...now, only the male remained.

"And then there was one," he whispered to himself.

The lilting music still played from somewhere else in the castle, and Tony hated the sound of it. He wanted to shout at the musician to shut up.

Where was the female figure?

Tony looked hard at the painting, looking for where Kate might be, and he suddenly saw her, down instead of up.

The question was what to do now. Did he try to go up and find Gibbs and Tim? Did he try to go down and find Kate? Or was there a third option he hadn't thought of yet?

Then, he heard something behind him...or rather to the side of him. He looked down the long hallway and there was a... person? Standing there, playing a lute.

Tony couldn't help it, he glanced back and looked at the painting.

Sure enough, the musician was now quite close to him.

Like the nutcracker, there was no reason this should be scary. The troubadour wasn't threatening him, but he was terrified.

In fact, he backed up a step.

Then, unlike the nutcracker, the troubadour began walking toward him. Saying nothing, just playing the lute.

Tony backed up another step, and he realized that he couldn't back up any more. He could wait and see what this person would do who just didn't quite seem right, or he could step over the threshold that had led to every other person in the group disappearing and hope for the best.

He had to choose between two unknowns and he didn't like that kind of thing. Not one bit.

But he had no other option.

The troubadour would reach him in seconds.

Tony took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold.

...and disappeared.


	4. Tuileries and Oxen

**Chapter 4: Tuileries and Cattle**

Gibbs stumbled and realized that he had _not_ stepped into the parlor. He was somewhere else. He looked back and could not see Kate.

He felt a strange combination of reactions to this. On the one hand, he was genuinely frightened by the fact that he had somehow moved somewhere else just by stepping through a doorway.

But on the other hand, he was annoyed. Couldn't this just be something simple?

For now, however, he was going to have to deal with it.

"Kate? Tony?"

No response. Well, he hadn't really expected one, but it was better to get rid of the possibility.

"McGee?"

Nope. Not him, either.

He looked around to figure out where he was, and he saw nothing. It seemed just blank... except for a single door. Well, walking through a doorway hadn't really worked out so well the first time. He wouldn't rush into it.

Then, he turned around and there was a wall.

Of course there was a wall. Why had he thought there wasn't before?

On that wall was a painting. It was a painting of a lush green park with children running around.

Okay, why was this here, especially when he was almost positive it hadn't been there before. Where did it come from?

He stood staring at it for a long moment. It was just a painting, but something about it was ominous.

Then, from behind him, he heard something he would never have expected to hear in this place.

Children laughing.

He spun around and there was a flash of color through the door.

Without thinking, Gibbs ran to the door and through it.

He was in a hallway. No sign of children.

He looked down one direction and started that way without any real guide.

Then, behind him once more, he heard children.

He turned around again.

This time, he saw two children run across the hall, into an open door. He started toward it.

And there was the sound of children behind him again.

Gibbs spun around.

Three children ran across the hall, through another open door that Gibbs would have sworn hadn't been open before.

He stopped moving one way or the other and, as he had suggested to Tim just barely, he backed up against the wall and looked both directions down the hallway that seemed to have no real end.

What now? He had no idea where he was, where the others were or what in the world was going on. The main thing was that he knew he couldn't just stand here without making a decision. Going back in the room with the painting didn't seem like a valid use of time unless it would send him back to where he'd come from, but going through it once hadn't done that.

For a few minutes, Gibbs stood there, in the hallway, wondering where to go.

Then, ten doors slammed open at once where Gibbs had only noticed five before, causing him to jump at the sudden sound. Children spilled out of the doors and ran around in the hall making chaotic noise as they talked and laughed. They seemed real. They seemed solid, but they seemed to take no notice of him at all, and Gibbs knew kids. Kids would notice a stranger. At least a few of them would.

None of them did.

For some reason, the sound made him actually more than a little nervous. There was nothing threatening going on here, but he felt like there was.

He didn't want to be in this hallway anymore. He started to walk through the crowd until he realized that he was literally walking _through_ the crowd of children.

As solid as they appeared, he was passing right through them.

Gibbs couldn't help it. He walked more quickly until he got to an open door and he stepped through it without a pause.

Instantly, the sound cut off as if someone had just turned off a switch. Gibbs turned back around and there was nothing behind him. He was in another blank room, but even as he thought that, there was a glow behind him and he turned around once more.

There was a painting on the wall.

It was of two oxen pulling a large cart.

If he had been Tony, Gibbs knew that there would be some incredulous demanding of answers...from no one. He felt the same way but he said nothing. The silence was oppressive, but he wasn't going to give away his position again by shouting. Instead, he stood there, staring at the painting, wondering why this random assortment of topics was appearing. A nutcracker. Kids in a garden. Now, oxen.

Why?

It just made no sense at all and Gibbs didn't like it when things didn't make sense.

Was there something _behind_ the painting, maybe? He started to walk toward it when suddenly, he heard a heavy tread out in the hallway.

Very heavy. Who or whatever it was wasn't moving slowly either. For all that the tread was heavy and lumbering, it sounded fairly swift.

Gibbs looked around for somewhere to hide.

There was a door. That was it.

Better than nothing.

Gibbs stepped behind the open door (when had it opened?) and waited for whatever it was to appear.

The heavy tread came closer and closer.

He waited in the complete and utter silence.

The tread came still closer.

He tensed as he waited.

Closer. Ever closer.

...and then, even Gibbs couldn't suppress a yell of surprise and shock when two oxen suddenly burst through the wall, through _him_ and plodded through the room in which he stood.

The oxen didn't even pause in their trek. Gibbs may as well have not existed.

They walked through the room, toward the picture and seemed to recede into the distance, getting smaller and smaller until, somehow, they were also _in_ the painting, walking through the countryside until they were gone.

The oxen in the painting were gone as well.

The canvas was empty.

Gibbs stood there, staring, wondering what he had just seen and, again, why.

_One of us must not be real,_ Gibbs thought to himself. Either the oxen were real and _he_ was not or else he was real and the oxen were an illusion.

Since Gibbs was not prepared to think of himself as unreal, he decided to view the oxen as an illusion. A bizarre illusion, but something had happened. Perhaps he was really unconscious and all he needed was to go to sleep or something and he'd wake up in the real world.

So if the oxen hadn't been real how much of what he was experiencing was real at all?

Had they actually gone into a castle that shouldn't exist in a place where there should only have been forest and maybe a cabin? Were they still in the car?

But what about all this strange stuff? Gibbs couldn't imagine any reason that he would be seeing these things.

But the oxen were gone and he was still standing in the middle of a room with a painting on the wall that had contained oxen which had now disappeared.

Okay, enough of this. He was going to focus on getting _out_ of this place. His team was smart enough to try to do the same.

Gibbs squared his shoulders and headed straight for the door. He walked through it without hesitation.

...and disappeared. Again.


	5. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks

**Chapter 5: Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks**

Kate blinked suddenly and looked around. It was so dark around her and why in the world was she here? The last thing she remembered...

"That music," she said softly.

It had seemed to worm into her brain and she hadn't been able to hear anything else. Something in it had called to her and told her to move. And she had. She had walked through the door toward the castle...

And then, that painting... but what had it been and why?

...but then, that question fell right out of her head.

There was a painting on the wall to the side of her. It was a painting of children dressed up like chicks still partially in their shells. It looked like they were dancing, almost like when kids put on little plays at school.

She felt her brow furrowing in confusion. Why was this happening?

She walked straight over to the painting and touched it.

It was really there.

"Okay, then. Where did you come from and why are you in this place? ...wherever this place is. _What_ever this place is."

Thankfully, the painting didn't answer her and she looked around the space, trying to figure out what to do.

But suddenly, a single feather wafted in front of her face. Instinctively, she grabbed it.

It was a chicken feather.

Kate looked at the feather and then up at the painting.

She would swear that the children were in different positions now than they had been before she had looked away.

She stared hard at the painting.

It wasn't moving.

A creak behind her made her spin around.

There was a door. She hadn't noticed the door before, but it was definitely there now. Not only was it there, but it had opened, seemingly on its own. How?

Kate felt that she was usually quite able to resist being frightened by the unknown, but this was truly terrifying to her for reasons she couldn't quite articulate, not even to herself.

More chicken feathers wafted through the air.

Kate spun back around to the painting. Now, the children were definitely in a different position than they had been before.

There was no other conclusion. The painting was moving. It was somehow living...and yet, still just paint.

The problem was that now Kate was facing this painting that seemed to move whenever she turned her back to it, but there was an open door behind her and that didn't feel all that great, either.

The rest of the room was strangely blank...almost as if it didn't really exist.

"Now, why did I think of that?" Kate wondered aloud.

Her own voice sounded strange, as if she was in a small space, but at the same time, she couldn't quite make herself focus on the walls of this room. The only clear things were the painting and the door. She backed up to the wall that she wasn't quite sure existed so that she could see both the painting and the door.

Where did the door lead?

She could see that there was a hallway outside the door, but that was all she could see.

"So what now, Kate," she asked herself. "Stay in the room with the dancing painting or step through the doorway and see if you end up in the hallway or somewhere else."

She kept her eye on the painting. It wasn't threatening at all, but it wasn't what was supposed to happen and that bothered her. A lot.

Then, there was a commotion out in the hallway. Kate froze in place, wondering what to do. There was no place to hide in here. She didn't know if she _should_. She wasn't prepared for there to be actual noise. She didn't know where in the castle she was.

All in all, this was a terrible position to be in and Kate hated that.

But the commotion got closer and closer to her and she stood frozen in place, with no idea what to do.

And then, there was an explosion of chicken feathers as a number of children, dressed in egg shells danced into the room, frolicking about like chicks trying to escape from the eggs. Kate tried to protect herself, although she wasn't sure she needed to.

But it didn't matter.

In spite of the very-real feathers floating around her in the air, Kate couldn't see that she and the children were genuinely occupying the same space. The children didn't notice her and when she reached out, she felt nothing.

The children tumbled and bustled around the room.

And then, somehow, (Kate didn't know how, even though she'd never looked away from them) they were all back in the painting, motionless and still.

But the feathers were still there. In fact, Kate knelt down and picked one up.

It was real.

So were the paintings somehow real in the sense that they were living?

It made no sense, and Kate definitely didn't like that, but what was the other explanation?

She was going nuts.

She didn't like that idea, either.

"I can't just stand around in here. It's not doing me any good," Kate whispered to herself.

While she little relished the idea of stepping out into the hallway, all alone and without any backup, she felt that she had no choice. She had to do _something_.

She took a deep breath and walked to the door.

She stopped on the threshold. Would she disappear again? Did she _want_ to disappear again?

Quite frankly, she didn't know the answer to either question.

One more deep breath and she stepped across the threshold.

...into the hallway.

She looked back and swallowed as she saw the painting come alive and the children dancing happily within the confines of the canvas. Then, she looked both ways down the hall.

There were no windows. There appeared to be no doors. Just two long hallways.

"Right or left," she said to herself, almost not making any sound at all. It was dead silent in the hallway. She couldn't hear the children in the painting...if they were still making noise.

Complete silence.

Unlike the hallway in which she and Tony had been before, there were no flickering torches.

And yet, she could still see.

That made no sense, either.

"Right or left," she said again.

Then, she thought she heard something. It wasn't singing this time.

But it was a voice.

But she couldn't understand it.

It was coming from the hallway to her left.

So now, she had a decision to make. Did she go _toward_ the voice or _away_ from the voice? There was no way to know for sure. And really, did she have a choice at all? Would this be a case of all roads leading to the place she didn't know if she wanted to go?

Then, as the soft voice continued to speak, she realized that, even if she didn't know quite what it was saying, she knew what language it was.

"Latin."

Finally, she decided.

Kate began to walk carefully and quietly down the hall... to the left. Her pace was slow. She stopped often to look behind her, but she kept on her way.

She seemed to be completely alone, but there was still that voice speaking Latin.

She realized that the hallway curved off to the right which meant she would have to go around a corner. She didn't like that, but she felt she had no choice this time.

She walked silently to the end of the hallway. Stopped. Mentally counted to three and swung around the corner quickly to confront whatever was there.

She stopped in shock.


	6. Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle

**Chapter 6: Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle**

Tim stumbled forward and turned around to berate Tony.

And then realized that he was not in the same place he'd been. Not even close. The doorway he'd fallen through now looked out on a hallway that was completely and utterly empty.

"Uh... guys?" Tim asked quietly.

It was obvious that no one was there, not even the nutcracker that had freaked him out so much. And he had no idea why the nutcracker had been so frightening, but it had been. And now, it was gone.

...or was it?

It had always been behind him, and he felt like there was a yawning emptiness behind him right now. He didn't like that feeling at all. He hadn't really looked around when he had first stumbled into this place. He had turned around instantly to face the door.

"_Who is this bumbling child?"_

"_How do I know? I've never seen him before."_

Tim heard the voices and spun around to confront the void behind him...that now seemed to contain two people.

There were no people behind him. In fact, all that he saw were two paintings of two old men. One was just the head and shoulders and he appeared to be looking at the other painting. The man in the other painting was seated on a chair with a bag on the floor beside him. Two paintings. That was it. So where had the voices come from?

He didn't like having the open door behind him. He was still feeling really jumpy after the creepy nutcracker.

He turned back to the door.

"_You'd think that he'd be more polite than this. Young kids today."_

"_And he came in here uninvited, too. How disappointing. The younger generation have no manners at all."_

Tim spun back.

There were the two paintings, but they weren't in the same positions as they had been. The man who had been seated and staring at his bag on the floor was now looking toward the other man whose head had turned a little bit. Tim _really_ didn't like this.

But in a bizarre way, it was almost comical... like having his own personal Statler and Waldorf.

Maybe he should just leave the room and try to find the others. He turned back to the door.

"_Did you ever see someone like him? He didn't even introduce himself."_

Tim turned back once more, and feeling both creeped out and a little embarrassed, he spoke...to the paintings.

"I'm Tim McGee," he said. "I don't even know how I got here, but I'll just be going if you don't mind."

He turned toward the door yet again.

"_You see? He comes, ignores us and then leaves. How rude."_

Tim screwed up his courage and spoke without turning around.

"Talking behind someone's back is rude, too, you know."

There was a pause.

"_Ah, true. He's got us there."_

Tim turned back toward the painting one more time, and to his satisfaction and horror, the two men in the paintings looked toward him.

The paintings actually moved _while_ he was looking at them.

"I'm going insane," he said softly.

"_Are you? Or are you already insane?"_ one asked him. _"Maybe it's a pre-existing condition."_

"Paintings can't talk. They're paint," he said.

"_Why can't we?" _the other asked. _"What rule says that we can't?"_

"Pretty much all of them. You're defying physical laws," Tim said.

"_Tsk. Tsk. I mean to be law-abiding. Unfortunate, but there you go."_

"_Don't they say that laws are made to be broken?"_

"Not these laws," Tim said, unsure if he should keep talking to paintings on a wall...in a creepy castle that seemed to have the power to move them all around.

"_I suppose not. Too bad. I've always tried to be circumspect."_

"_Always. You didn't even exist a little while ago. Neither of us did."_

"What do you mean you didn't exist?"

"_Are you unaware of what the word means? Education is lacking, too."_

"_We're paintings, young man. Do you really think that it's logical for us to have been hanging here on the wall for all eternity?"_

"I don't think it's logical for me to be talking to paintings at all, and it's even less logical to be getting responses. And I'm afraid there's going to be something behind me."

"_Why?"_

"Because there was before."

"_Oh, the gnome."_

"The nutcracker."

"_He's never cracked a nut before. He's a gnome."_

"He's always behind me."

"_Of course. Where else would he be?"_

"That doesn't make sense," Tim said.

"_No, of course not. It shouldn't."_

"What now?"

The two paintings looked at each other and then back at him. The one with a full body shrugged.

"_How would we know? We're just right in here."_

"Can you tell me what this place is?"

The one without a full body suddenly smiled. It wasn't really a pleasant smile but it wasn't evil, either. It was just wrong.

"_It's an exhibition. Enjoy."_

They both started laughing and something about the laughter got under Tim's skin and made him feel completely creeped out. He backed away from the two paintings.

"_Don't miss Baba Yaga! She's to die for!"_

Then, the paintings began laughing again, this time seeming almost menacing.

Tim turned around and ran for the door he stumbled over the threshold and was out in the hall. The laughter seemed to echo behind him and fill the space. He hated it. He wanted to escape it, but he was still feeling a little unsteady on his feet. He reeled through the hall like a drunken sailor, looking for some kind of escape, in a kind of mindless flight away from danger, like one did in a dream. There was a feeling of pursuit and no questioning whether or not the feeling was genuine.

As he ran through the halls, he noticed that it was getting darker and darker. There were no windows, no doors. It was as if he was running through a void that just happened to be in a castle. However that might work.

He suddenly stopped his flight.

"Why am I doing this?" he asked himself. "It makes no sense."

He tried to catch his breath, leaning against the wall for balance.

But now, he was in a dark hallway. Alone. Lost. No idea where to go.

That seemed like a bad situation.

But what to do to fix it? Tim could only imagine how Gibbs would look at him for acting like a scared child. He'd be wondering why in the world he'd wanted Tim on his team in the first place. Tim couldn't just stand here and hope for rescue. He needed to rescue himself. ...or at least ascertain whether or not he needed to be rescued at all.

Screwing up his courage, Tim straightened, squared his shoulders and started walking through the darkness of the hallway that seemed to only partly exist.

At first, it was working out just fine, but then, he took a step...

...and there was nothing there.

No floor.

No anything.

And Tim fell.

...and then, disappeared.


	7. Limoges

**Chapter 7: Limoges. The Market**

Tony looked around and felt a chill, almost as if he was outside...and yet, he felt like he was in an enclosed space, like a hallway, not out in the open air.

But it was all dark around him and he couldn't see anything. The troubadour was gone. The music was gone. The painting of the old castle was gone. All in all, he wasn't sure if, in the balance, he was ahead, but he didn't think he was behind.

"Kate?" he called out, hoping that maybe they could have walked through the same door and ended up in the same place.

No answer. It was silent. Well, no big surprise there, really. It couldn't be that simple. Not in this crazy world they'd somehow walked into. If Kate was right there, that would actually make sense. They couldn't have that.

"And I was the one saying we should go back," he muttered to himself. "I was right the whole time. We shouldn't have come here. I was right!"

Unfortunately, his declaration was not helping the situation at all. He was still standing in the dark, all alone.

Where to go was the question on the table. He couldn't just keep standing here. He couldn't find that there was any option to go back the way he'd come (no door at the moment), and besides, he wasn't sure that would be a good idea anyway. He didn't know why the troubadour had been so threatening, but he'd been genuinely frightened by him...probably a lot like how Tim had been so afraid of the nutcracker. There was no explainable reason for it, but there it was.

"Okay, DiNozzo, you can't just stand around doing nothing. It's not helping and I definitely don't like standing here in the dark anyway. So which way?"

He looked around. There appeared to be some light off to his right. Well, that was good enough for now. Why walk into the dark when you could walk toward the light?

"Hmmm... I don't know if I like thinking of it that way," Tony said. "Way too much like dying. I'm heading toward the brighter area of the hall. Clunky, but better."

He set off toward the light. He was cautious, but eager to get somewhere. Because here didn't seem to exist.

"Now, why did I think that? That makes no sense. Never mind. It doesn't matter," Tony said, carrying on the conversation with himself.

He continued down the hall and he came to a doorway.

"Should I go through this door?" he asked himself aloud. "That hasn't worked out so well for anyone else."

But that was where the light was coming from, and he didn't like standing out in the hallway. He didn't like the idea of going through another doorway and getting whooshed off somewhere else, either, but it wasn't like this was a great choice.

"Okay. Just go into the room and see if you can figure something out. Look out a window or something."

Tony nodded to himself and stepped into the room.

Then, he stopped midstride and looked around.

Then, he blinked, shook his head and looked around again.

What he was seeing was essentially impossible.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said.

He was standing in a space with a stone floor and wall, but all around him was open air. It wasn't as if there was simply a little ruin where the stone floor had survived and the rest had decayed. No. It was like someone had been making a room and had forgotten to make the entire room or as if he was standing in a life-size cut away of a house. He didn't know how to describe it.

"Bizarre. That's what describes it," Tony muttered.

Where he was... that was a room, but in front of him was a bustling marketplace. People were talking and shouting and buying from any number of vendors.

Then, he looked to the side and there was a painting on the wall.

It wasn't another castle.

It was...

He looked back at the scene in front of him.

"I'm seeing the painting in real life," he realized. "Why am I seeing a painting in real life? _How_ am I seeing a painting in real life?"

People continued to surge back and forth, all talking at once. It was an incredible commotion. He found himself wanting to shout, just to see if he'd get a reaction.

And yet, no one seemed to notice this half room that had appeared right beside them. It was as if he didn't even exist.

"Hey, I exist," he said to himself. "I know I exist!"

No one else seemed to agree with him, though, and that made Tony nervous.

"Did I die when I walked through that doorway? Does that we're all dead? I mean, this is something that makes no sense. It's ridiculous. Is that was death means? Dealing with ridiculous things for eternity? I don't like that. This can't be right."

Tony looked at the painting again. It really was the same thing he was seeing in real life.

...except _was_ it real?

Then, he looked more closely at the painting.

It was moving.

The painting was moving.

Just like the commotion he could see all around him.

In fact...

Carefully, he edged over to the painting and focused in on two women who seemed to be arguing with each other. They were dynamic and flamboyant.

Then, he looked out at the scene before him and...

In the midst of all the people in the market, there were two women, gesticulating wildly as they talked to each other.

Tony swallowed.

"I'm seeing the same thing out there as in here. Why? This makes no sense!"

The thing was that, if it wasn't for that fact that he had absolutely no idea what was going on or what was happening or why any of this was even possible, it might be kind of cool to see if he really was seeing a blown up version of the painting in front of him.

However, all things considered, he would really like more to have this all just go away. He definitely was _not_ enjoying it.

He began to edge his way back over to the door, again wondering if he'd disappear by stepping over the threshold. He hadn't once, but he had once. So it was a fifty-fifty chance that he'd disappear again. In fact...

He looked around. No windows, but then, there were only two walls. The one with the painting and the one with the door. Everything else was the market.

"Maybe I should have gone for wandering around in the dark," he said to himself.

A deep breath, and he stepped over the threshold.

And he didn't disappear.

The room behind him did.

It was as if the lights all went out as soon as he stepped through the door. Now, he had no idea why he didn't think he'd been whooshed away somewhere else, but he didn't. He was sure he was back in the same hallway he'd been in before.

Only now, there was absolutely no light at all. It was as if he'd stepped into a cave.

And he _really_ didn't like it. He felt exposed and in danger. He thought about one time he'd been sent into a basement to get something after the sun had gone down. He'd actually felt a little uncertain about it, and his friend had said something his grandma had always told him.

"There's nothing there in the dark that wasn't there in the light," Tony said aloud.

Unfortunately, in this place, that was no comfort at all.

Then, from behind him, he heard something.

It was still pitch black.

And almost like in a dream, Tony started to run away from the sound. He was running through absolutely nothing, it seemed.

And he wasn't hitting a wall, either.

That seemed a little strange. No matter how big this place was, surely, a straight hallway would have to end or at least curve at some point.

Then, suddenly, there was light ahead of him.

Surprised, Tony skidded to a stop and listened behind him.

No sound.

He swallowed and started toward the light ahead. It wasn't bright, but there was clearly something there, where he felt like, behind him, there was nothing.

Closer and closer.

And then, he realized that the hallway did curve to the left. He didn't like having to approach the corner blindly, but there really was no choice. He had to.

Closer still.

Then, suddenly, he fell backward in surprise.


	8. Catacombs Con mortuis in lingua mortua

**Chapter 8: Catacombs. Con mortuis in lingua mortua.**

"Kate!" Tony said.

"Tony!" Kate said at the exact same time.

"Where did you come from?" Tony asked.

"The hall."

Then, there was a thump and they both spun around to find that Tim was rolling down some stairs that hadn't been there before into a heap on the floor.

"McGee!" Tony said and quickly knelt down to check on him.

"Tim, are you all right?" Kate asked.

"Yeah," Tim said. "Just bruised...and it's not all in my head."

Kate laughed, but she didn't get a chance to say anything more.

...because Gibbs suddenly appeared in the middle of the hallway, right beside them.

"Boss," Tony said, sounding very relieved.

Gibbs looked around and then down at them. He seemed a little miffed, actually, which Kate found somehow entertaining. She stood up.

"So...where did you end up, Gibbs?" she asked.

"A room. With two paintings. Nothing else."

"Me, too," Tim said.

"Hey, I only got one!" Tony said.

"I only had one, as well," Kate said. "It was of little kids dressed in costumes, dancing around. ...and I saw them for real, too."

"That's what happened to me," Tony said. "Only it was a marketplace or something. But the painting was on the wall and it was moving, but the real thing was all around me. No one saw me or anything. I was just there. What were your paintings, Boss?"

"Kids in a garden and oxen pulling a cart."

"That's random. Did you see them in real life, too?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said. Then, he looked at Tim, who hadn't contributed to the comparison much. "What did you see, McGee?"

Tim looked up at him.

"Nothing in real life," he said.

"Come on, Probie. How bad can it be? You heard what we all said," Tony said.

Tim shrugged a little.

"Come on, Probie. Spill."

"It was just two paintings of two old men. They never came out of the frame..."

"But?" Kate asked. "I heard a but in there."

"But...they... they talked to me."

"They talked _to_ you?" Tony repeated. "Like, they acknowledged your presence?"

"Yeah," Tim said.

"No one seemed to notice me at all," Kate said.

"Me, neither," Tony said.

They all looked at Gibbs. He just shook his head.

"What makes _you_ so special?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Tim said, clearly embarrassed.

"Well, we need to figure out how to get out of here," Kate said, "but I wish I knew why this was happening."

"It's an exhibition," Tim said.

All eyes turned to him again and he seemed very uncomfortable with the renewed attention.

"How do you know that, McGee?" Gibbs asked.

"The... old men told me. They said this place is an exhibition. And they said something about not missing... something. I don't know what it was. Sounded like gibberish. Then, they started laughing and I left."

"And fell down the stairs," Tony added.

"There weren't stairs," Tim said. "It was like things just stopped existing. And I know you're going to say I'm crazy, but that's what it was like."

"No," Kate said, quickly. "I felt like that, too."

"So did I," Tony admitted.

"So where are we now?" Tim asked.

"I don't know, but I heard something before I ran into Tony," Kate said.

"What?" Gibbs asked.

"Someone speaking Latin."

"Latin? And I thought Tim's old men were weird."

"There's nothing weird about Latin, Tony," Kate said, impatiently. "It's..."

"Can you understand it?" Gibbs interrupted.

"Not from here. It's too faint."

"Which way?"

"I thought it was coming from where Tony was."

"Well, _I_ wasn't speaking Latin," Tony said.

"Shut up, everyone," Gibbs said. "Be quiet."

Everyone stopped talking. Tim even seemed to stop breathing.

For a moment it was utterly silent.

Then, they all heard it. A quiet voice, speaking as if from far away. They couldn't understand the words, but it was a voice.

"Do we go to it or not?" Kate asked.

"Do we have a choice?" Tim asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean? Of course we do!" Tony said, turning on him.

"But we can't go the way you were going to go, Kate," Tim said, looking nervous. "That's where Tony came from. It obviously wasn't a way out. That means we have to go back the way Kate came and that's where the voice is. Or else we have to climb the stairs that weren't there before and that's where I fell from. There was nowhere there."

"He's right," Kate said. "We don't really have a choice, but at least we're together this time."

"If we can stay that way," Tony muttered. "And I'd like to add that I thought coming here was a bad idea from the start."

"Great, DiNozzo. We'll put that on your tombstone," Kate said.

"Hey! At least say my resume!"

"Focus!" Gibbs said. "Let's go."

There was no arguing with that and they all started down the hallway, toward the whispering voice. They walked close together. Even with the bickering, they didn't want to be too far apart in this strange place where the normal rules didn't seem to apply.

They walked down the hallway into greater and greater gloom, but the voice did seem to be getting louder.

The hallway turned off to the right again. They paused.

Gibbs didn't let that last for more than a few seconds.

"Let's go," he said again.

They nodded silently and followed him around the corner.

And they all stopped. There was a painting on a wall far away from them, but all around them was something else.

The dead. In niches on both walls, there were bodies, some only skeletons. But...

"We're in catacombs," Kate whispered.

"What?" Tony asked.

"Catacombs. Where they used to bury their dead. A long time ago."

"Okay. Who's talking?"

"I hope not the dead," Tim said, looking around anxiously.

"Would that be better or worse than a painting talking to you?" Tony asked.

"I don't want either one," Tim said.

Cautiously, they walked toward the painting.

Nothing happened as they walked.

The painting was of three, one holding a lantern... in place that looked a lot like it could catacombs. It wasn't defined enough to be certain, but...

"We're in the painting," Kate said.

"But who was talking?" Tim asked.

"_Solum mortui."_

The voice startled them all, even Gibbs.

"What was that?" Kate asked.

"_Solum mortui."_

"Do you know what that means, Kate?" Tony asked, his voice almost a whisper.

"Only the dead."

"What does that mean?"

"_Solum mortui hic."_

"The same words again, but... they added... _here_," Kate said.

"Only the dead here?"

"Only the dead are here," Tim said. "Does that mean that... _we're_ dead?"

"No!" Tony said instantly. "No, that is _not_ what it means. I am _not_ dead."

"But if only the dead are here... then..."

"No, McGee!" Tony said again. "That's not what it means. Okay, voice? You hear me? I'm not dead! We're not dead!"

"_Omnes moritur."_

"Everyone dies," Kate said, in a whisper.

"But not yet!"

Gibbs had said nothing so far. He was just standing there. Tony turned to him.

"Boss, we're not dead."

Gibbs looked around. A clock chimed somewhere far away from them.

"Are we dead?" he asked.

There was a long pause. Complete silence except for the chiming clock.

"_Nondum."_

"Not yet," Kate said.

"Then, how did we get here?"

There was no answer, even though they all waited silently for more words. Nothing was said.

The chimes stopped.

It was completely silent.

And then...

Tim let out a wordless exclamation and pointed.

They all turned and, from the niches in the walls, emerged shapes.

"The dead," Tim said, horrified.

More and more shapes appeared and began to move around. It wasn't accurate to call them ghosts. Some of them seemed to be nothing more than mist. But they moved with purpose.

And like with all the other rooms, they didn't seem to notice the four people standing in their midst.

"Let's get out of here," Kate said. "If this is for the dead, then, we don't want to stay here."

"Where do we go?" Tim asked.

"Away," Tony said. "Worry about where later."

"That way," Gibbs said, pointing to the hallway, the only way that they hadn't yet gone. It required that they walk through a thick mist that almost obscured their view.

"Are you sure about that, Boss?" Tony asked.

"No other choice," Gibbs said.

He started forward, just as he had before when he had disappeared for the first time. Tony lurched after him and grabbed his arm.

"Wait, Boss! Don't..."

His voice abruptly cut off as both he _and_ Gibbs disappeared at the same time.

Kate looked at Tim, grabbed his arm and dragged him through the mist toward the hallway.

"Gibbs!" she called.

And then...

They vanished.


	9. Baba Yaga

**Chapter 9: Baba Yaga**

Kate and Tim tripped over each other and ended up in a heap on the floor.

"Where are we?" Kate asked.

"Can't see anything. But we're not where we were," Tim said.

They both got up.

"But we disappeared together," Kate said. "So... maybe that means that Tony and Gibbs are together somewhere, too."

"We need to get out of here," Tim said.

"Yeah, of course."

"No, we _need _to get out," Tim said.

Kate turned toward Tim, but it was so dark that all she could see was the form of him.

"What are you talking about?"

"I have a really bad feeling, Kate. When those two... paintings... talked to me, they seemed to think that it was funny to tell me to watch out for something else. They said it was to die for. I don't think they were kidding. I think they meant it literally. We need to get out of here."

Kate couldn't help but wonder just how hard Tim had hit his head. But at the same time, his fear was palpable, and she could admit that she hadn't been there to hear what Tim said he had heard.

Then, suddenly, there was light. It faintly illuminated the hall.

It was coming from an open door.

"Let's see if that's the way," Kate said.

"I'll bet it won't be. I'll bet it's another painting."

"Of what?"

"No idea."

"Well, then, let's go see. We have no idea where else to go and that at least seems to exist," Kate said.

"Okay."

"But let's keep hold of each other. If we're going to disappear again, let's do it together."

Tim actually laughed a little at that. "Sounds so romantic."

Kate laughed, too. "Let's go."

They actually held hands and walked down the hall toward the light.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Boss?" Tony said.

His voice seemed very echo-y as if he was in a very large room.

"Boss?" he called out again.

"Shut up, DiNozzo," came Gibbs' voice out of the complete darkness.

Tony tried not to reveal how relieved he was that he wasn't alone again.

"Where are you?" he asked.

A hand grabbed his arm and Tony swallowed.

"That you?"

"Yeah."

"Where are we?"

"A room."

Tony forced a laugh.

"Think there'll be a painting here, too?"

"Maybe."

"What if there's not?"

"Don't know."

"You have a light?"

"Nope."

"Maybe you could change your rules to always carry a flashlight," Tony said.

Then, in a flash that almost blinded them, the lights were on, and they were standing in the middle of a great hall.

But it wasn't really all that relaxing of a situation. They were surrounded.

By ghosts.

Tony didn't know if that was really what they were, but he couldn't think of anything else to call them.

"They followed us," he said.

Gibbs looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"We were here first," Tony said, trying to sound calm and unconcerned.

"How do you know that? We couldn't see anything."

"You're not helping, Boss."

"Wasn't trying to," Gibbs said, with a slight smile.

As with their interactions before, these ghosts didn't seem to be paying them any attention, but it was extremely unpleasant to be surrounded like this.

"What do we do now?" Tony asked.

"Don't know."

"I vote we find a door and get out of here."

"Okay."

They started to look, but it was hard to see where the room ended. It was so large that it seemed to have no walls at all.

Maybe it didn't.

But they couldn't stay where they were. That wouldn't help.

Cautiously, they stepped forward, keeping in contact.

Just in case.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim and Kate reached the doorway and paused before stepping in front of it.

"I don't know if this is a good idea, Kate," Tim said. "But I don't know if we have any other choice."

Kate smiled. "You're probably right on both counts. Let's just get it over with."

"Okay."

Tim felt kind of wimpy, but he was glad that he wasn't alone this time.

They swung around so that they could look into the room.

There was a painting on the wall.

"What _is_ that?" Kate asked.

"It looks like a clock," Tim said.

"But it has chicken legs."

Tim looked more closely.

"Yeah, it does. Weird."

The clock was intricately designed, but it was strange that it had the chicken legs, plus stylized chickens or roosters in various parts.

Then, from behind them, there was a sound.

It was not a pleasant one.

"What was that?"

Something was skittering across the stone floor behind them.

"Is it the nutcracker again?" Kate whispered.

"It sounds bigger than that," Tim said. Then, he looked at the painting again.

"What if it's that?" he asked, pointing at the painting.

Kate looked at him. He could see she was scared, too. Both of them were long past questioning the _why_ of the situation. They were just existing within that situation and trying to get out of it.

Which was why they kept hold of each other's hands and started running through the hallway, away from the light.

But the skittering sound continued behind them as if they were being pursued. The sound was strange, but neither of them dared look back.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Stepping into the mist of ghosts around them was not pleasant. Gibbs could admit that, but he found himself reluctant to discuss anything that was happening...as if he could deny the reality of it by simply ignoring the details. They needed to get out of this place and that was all.

The problem was that it didn't really quite work because, no matter how disconnected he was acting, he felt the oppression of the building, as if he was fighting against something that truly did exist and was trying to keep them inside.

"Boss, I think there's a door over there," Tony said, pointing through the thick mist that surrounded them. "And if this was a horror movie, right when we got to it, it would burst open, revealing the serial killer... or monster."

"What's the difference?" Gibbs asked.

"Don't know," Tony said. "One of them would be at least _shaped _like a person."

They headed for the door.

It was actually a large set of double doors, arched and decorative.

Tony reached out for the door handle.

...and suddenly, it burst open, forcing them backward. In fact, Tony only barely escaped getting beaned right in the face as Gibbs grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

It wasn't a monster. It wasn't a serial killer.

It was Kate and Tim, running toward them, while holding hands. They looked terrified.

"Hurry up!" Kate said, tugging at them both. "We have to get away!"

"From what?" Tony asked.

But then, he paled.

"Boss... look at that," he said faintly.

Gibbs looked.

He looked again.

There was a house running toward them.

A house with chicken legs. It was something that shouldn't have been terrifying, but it really was. It was threatening.

And somehow, Gibbs suddenly remembered a story his father had told him when he was a child.

About a witch who lived in a house with legs that meant she could go after anyone. Sometimes, she could be persuaded to help, but more often, she kidnapped children.

What was her name?

"Baba Yaga," he whispered.

"What?"

"Let's go."

They all turned and ran for the opposite side of the room, not knowing if there would be a way out, but all feeling urgency of needing to escape.

In fact, Gibbs grabbed hold of Tony with one hand and Kate with the other. They weren't going to get separated again. They'd disappear all together or not at all.

He didn't know if he really had any control over that or not, but he was willing to try it.

As they ran across the seemingly-endless hall, the ghosts vanished.

...and so did the light.

But the skittering sounds of the chicken talons on the stone floor continued behind them, only now, they were in complete darkness, running away from something they couldn't see, toward something they couldn't see (or maybe not, maybe they weren't running toward anything at all).

Gibbs could guess what the others were thinking. It was the same thing _he_ was thinking.

_Can we get out of this?_


	10. The Great Gate of Kiev

**Chapter 10: The Great Gate of Kiev**

Just as the skittering sounds indicated the strange house closing in on them, there was a strange flickering.

The sounds behind them vanished and they all skidded to a stop, somehow knowing the pursuit was over.

"Now what?" Tony asked, sounding a little breathless.

"We keep going and try to get out," Gibbs said.

"What direction to we go now?" Kate asked, out of the darkness.

"What direction _were_ we going before?" Tim asked. "I don't know how much it matters."

"Forward," Gibbs said.

They started walking again, although they didn't feel the need to run. They kept hold of each other. Who knew how long they walked in complete darkness but then, there was a light ahead of them, leading off the to the left.

"Do we go toward the light?" Kate asked.

"Don't say it like that," Tony said.

"It's going to be another painting," Tim said.

"Don't be such a pessimist, Probie."

"I'm not. Every other time we've had light suddenly appear, it's been another painting."

"It's the only thing we can see," Gibbs said. "Let's go."

"I don't know if that's a good idea, Boss," Tony said. "They haven't turned out so great."

"But nothing has hurt us," Kate said, suddenly. "It's been scary, but we're not hurt."

"That chicken house didn't seem very friendly and it had you running," Tony said.

"I didn't like it. It scared me, but we didn't get hurt, either."

"Let's go," Gibbs said, cutting into the argument.

He strode ahead of the other three, forcing them to stop bickering and catch up.

"Wait up, Boss!" Tony said.

"Yeah, let's not get split up again, okay?" Kate said, grabbing his arm.

Gibbs stopped and looked at Kate with a raised eyebrow. There was just enough light that her blush was visible, but her expression was still determined. He smiled just a little and waited for Tim and Tony to join them.

Then, they continued on to the door and peeked inside (without going in). There was a painting on the wall as Tim had guessed.

The painting was of a large, grand gate, perhaps as part of the wall of a great city. It was actually quite beautiful.

"A gate," Tony said. "I wouldn't mind if _that_ one became real. We could go through it and get out of here."

As if something had been waiting for Tony to say that, there was the sound of chiming bells and then, the painting burst into life before them. The painting was still hanging on the wall, but the gate itself loomed up above them.

"We haven't really been able to interact with the stuff in the paintings, though," Tony added.

"There were real feathers," Kate said. "And Tim spoke to his paintings."

"And the dead people spoke to us in the catacombs," Tim added.

"And the nutcracker was really there...and so was whatever that thing was," Kate said.

"So you think we _could_ go through the gate and get out?"

"Where would we be going _to_?" Gibbs asked. "Out of the castle or out of wherever that gate is?"

Tony seemed to deflate a little.

"Oh. I don't know."

"But really, what's the worst case scenario?" Kate asked. "That nothing happens or that we get transported somewhere else?"

"I guess so."

"We have no idea where we are anyway," Tim said. "Nothing we've done seems to have got us any closer to getting out. Maybe this is our best chance."

Gibbs listened to all the discussion, letting his team put forth ideas and get to the details of what was good or bad about the ideas. This was serious enough, though, that it might be best to actually put it to a vote.

"You all agree to try it?" he asked.

The three of them looked at each other for a moment and then nodded at the same time.

"Okay. Let's go."

"But stay together," Kate said. "We're not getting separated again."

They stood close together, in physical contact and stepped through the doorway. They were in the room holding the painting, but they deliberately tried to walk toward the life-size version of the gate that they could see.

To Gibbs' surprise, it actually seemed to be working. They were getting closer to it. The gate loomed up above them. It definitely had a Russian look to it. It was beautiful, but there was a feeling of anticipation that was almost painful in its intensity as they got closer and closer to it.

Would this work?

Could they get out?

What would be on the other side if they did?

They reached the gate and suddenly, someone addressed them directly.

From behind, of course.

"Spasibo, chto prishli. Vozvrashchaysya v lyuboye vremya!"

They turned around, and a man was standing there, smiling pleasantly at them. He waved. Tim hesitantly waved back and Tony pushed his hand down. However, the man handed Tim a piece of paper. Tim took it.

"Anyone catch what he said?" Kate asked.

"Come back anytime," Gibbs said.

"Not likely," Tony muttered. "Let's just go."

They turned again and walked through the gate.

...and into the storm that still raged all around them.

They were in the woods.

Quickly, they all turned around to see the castle, to see the gate, to see _something_.

Trees. That was all they saw.

There was no castle, no grand gate, no friendly man telling them to come again.

Just trees and rain.

They all looked at each other, and Kate reached into her pocket and silently pulled out a single chicken feather. She held it up without speaking. Tony took it from her and swallowed. He handed it back.

Still without speaking, they turned as one and started to make their way through the forest, hopefully back to the road.

"What if we're lost?" Tony asked.

"If you have to ask that, doesn't it mean that we are?" Kate asked.

"Nope. If the road doesn't show up soon, then, we're lost. I'm expecting the road. If I'm right, then, we're not lost."

They pushed on through the trees.

...and then, suddenly stumbled out onto the road, not far from the car.

There was a bright flash of lightning that momentarily blinded them and...

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Jethro, are you all right? Mr. Palmer, are you getting any response at all?"

"Not yet, Dr. Mallard."

Gibbs struggled to open his eyes.

"Oh, I think he's awakening now. Jethro, can you hear me?"

"What's going on?" Gibbs asked, wondering why he felt so foggy.

That was Tony. Gibbs turned his head slightly and saw Tony, with blood running down the side of his head, just lifting himself up from the steering wheel. Quickly, Gibbs started to turn to the back seat.

"Calm down, Jethro. You've had a very bad knock. I only just got you to respond."

"Kate? McGee?" he asked.

"I'm here, Gibbs," Kate said, sounding groggy. "Tim?"

There was no response. This time, Gibbs did turn, ignoring Ducky's caution.

Tim was completely unconscious, covered in glass from the shattered passenger window. His head was resting on the door frame.

"Mr. Palmer, can you get to him?" Ducky asked.

"Not without climbing over Agent Todd."

"Climb over me," Kate said urgently.

Awkwardly, Jimmy did as he was told and got to Tim, checking his breathing, checking for bleeding, trying to bring him around.

Then, suddenly, Tim came awake with a start and seemed a little panicked.

"Tim, it's okay," Kate said, soothingly. "We're back in the car. You're okay."

"Back?" Jimmy repeated. "You got out of the car?"

"Didn't we?" Tony asked, blearily.

"I highly doubt it," Ducky said. "You're all soaked from the storm since the windows and windshield are all broken. You were all unconscious when Mr. Palmer and I arrived."

"What's... happening?" Tim asked.

"We're in the car, Tim. There was an accident," Kate said.

"Yeah, I'm amazed you weren't all killed," Jimmy said. "The car is absolutely totaled."

"Any sign of broken bones, Mr. Palmer?" Ducky asked.

"No. McGee, do you have anywhere that feels numb? Can you feel your hands, your feet?"

Tim nodded vaguely. "Yeah."

"I think he has a concussion, Dr. Mallard."

"Unsurprising. If that's _all_ he has, he'll be lucky."

"An ambulance should be here soon," Jimmy said.

"Don't need ambulance. Just don't want to see any more pictures," Tim mumbled.

"What?"

"No more pictures, Tim," Kate said. She met Gibbs' gaze for just a second.

"Let's get you out of the car and out of the rain as much as possible," Ducky said. "Now, I don't want any of you to try to move on your own. Allow Mr. Palmer and myself to assist you. Understood?"

Gibbs nodded, still feeling very foggy, but unsure of what had just happened. How had they got back to the car? Why were they all injured when they hadn't been before?

Had it all been a dream?

...that they had all experienced together?

Ducky got Tony out of the car and led him over to the truck, while Jimmy did the same with Kate. Then, Ducky and Jimmy both came over to help Gibbs, but he insisted that they take Tim out first.

They did, and Tim was pretty much out of it, having hit his head very hard against the tree that had broken the window. He kept talking about talking paintings.

Then, Ducky came back to help Gibbs out. He managed to climb over to the driver's side on his own, but he had to lean on Ducky more than he wanted to admit.

In spite of their protests (even Tim's disjointed ones), all of them were transported to a local hospital for examination. Tim was admitted overnight, and to his chagrin, so was Gibbs. Both of them were diagnosed with a concussion from bearing the brunt of the impact when the car had spun. Tony and Kate stayed in their room (they were sharing). All of them were exhausted and all of them fell asleep quickly.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_Two days later..._

They'd had to wait until Tim was released and now, while he wouldn't be back to work yet, he was at least home. They were all in their right minds. They were all able to talk about what they had experienced, something they hadn't mentioned to anyone after waking up the morning after the accident. Ducky had asked about the paintings Tim had mentioned but Tim had claimed not to remember.

Now, they were at Gibbs' house. Now, they could talk about it.

And now, they were sitting together in silence, no one wanting to address the gargantuan elephant in the room.

Then, finally, with not a word spoken, Kate reached into her pocket, as she had once before, and pulled out a single chicken feather. She set it on the table. They looked at it silently.

Then, they all looked at Tim. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a brochure. It had been in the car. It was the paper that the man at the gate had given him, advertising an exhibition of paintings by Viktor Hartmann who had died in the 19th century.

"They're real," he said, softly.

"Yep," Gibbs said.

Tony reached out and picked up the brochure.

"'Join us for pictures at an exhibition,'" he read in a monotone.

"It really happened," Kate said. "But why?"

"Who knows?" Gibbs said.

"Okay...then, what was it?"

"An exhibition," Tim said. "We even got to see the paintings up close to get better looks at the details."

"Too close, Probie," Tony said.

"Yeah."

"What now?" Kate asked. "What do we do about this?"

"Nothing," Gibbs said.

"Yeah, the castle doesn't exist. No one will believe us anyway," Tony said. "Let's just leave it."

"I think we almost died in the accident," Tim whispered. "And that was like intermission. Will we go on or go back? We went back."

None of them could come up with a valid reason for rejecting that idea, although it was obvious that Tony wanted to. It wasn't said, but everyone was thinking it without saying it: Gibbs had been urging them onward. Tony had been urging them back. No one said it. Instead, Kate took back her feather. Tim took back the brochure.

"Now what?" Kate asked again.

"Now? ...we get back to work," Gibbs said. "If we almost died, then, we have a second chance. Let's use it."

They all nodded.

"And we just try to forget what happened."

"I won't," Tim said, looking at the brochure.

No one else said anything. They just left and tried to forget what had happened.

But none of them could ever forget.

FINIS!


End file.
